All the OSs score high (and XP fares decently), but for extremely different reasons. What Apple offers with the iLife bundle "simply blows the doors off anything it's compared with on the PC platform in terms of ease of use, integration, and accessibility," says Sascha. But he also admits that it's limited. iLife is about your personal lifestyle and improving itorganizing pictures, making videos, and collecting music are the hallmarks. To get work done, you'd need to buy, direct from Apple, the separate iWork ($79) or Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 ($399.95 list).

Ubuntu addresses productivity more automatically. The Gutsy Gibbon distro installs the third-party OpenOffice by default, making it the only OS here to offer a full office suite out of the box (so to speak). Some argue that Ubuntu gets too much credit for this distinction, since Ubuntu developers didn't create OpenOffice (or Firefox or GIMP or any other auto-installed, bundled application). But there's nothing stopping Apple and Microsoft from including a freeware office suite such as OpenOffice, except the desire to sell their own suites.

Windows Vista has no lack of bundled software, but it runs the gamut in usefulness. Improvements in programsamong them the slick Internet Explorer 7 (especially slick when compared with Safari on the Mac, a bad browser), Windows Mail, and Vista Calendargive it an extra leg up. Its Windows DVD Maker and Movie Maker even compete quite well with iLife on the Mac. Vista is the first Microsoft OS to include anti-malware software: Windows Defender. But is that a plus or a minus? (More on that under Security, below.)

Most of the bundled software with Vista is available in some way as a download for XP. But by itself, XP has absolutely the weakest software bundle. Not surprising, since it has essentially the same collection today that it shipped with in 2001.

Eric narrowly averted a career in food service when he began in tech publishing at Ziff-Davis over 20 years ago. He was on the founding staff of Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine (all defunct, and it's not his fault). He's the author of two novels, BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale"--Publishers' Weekly) and KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. He works from his home in Ithaca, NY.
More »